Jols new "system"

[Andy_M]

I presume most of us have seen/read the following article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2197264/Dimitar-Berbatov-disappointed-sale-Mousa-Dembele.html

Now I find the interesting part the quote from Jol
'He showed exactly that when I was at Spurs. It's about finding the right balance. If players come back it will be OK and maybe we have to change the system. With Dembele it was different.'

It seems pretty obvious to me and I think to most others too that the team was set up pretty much around Dembele in the first 2 games. Our game flowed through him, he was our focal point. With Dembele gone we need a new "system".

I suspect over the next 2 weeks Jol will work on not necessarily changing our style of play, but more the system that deploys that style. Probably a change from our 4-2-3-1 to a 4-4-1-1 or straight 4-4-2. I think with a player like Berba in your team and his first touch and undoubted quality our game will be changed to make him our focal point or if not it will be a reliance on a link between Ruiz and Berba. We have all seen some of the passes Ruiz can pull off and his vision, if him and Berba can get on the same wavelength it could be very special!

As many have pointed out we are very weak in CM the thing that worries me most about our CM situation that as brilliant a player as Diarra is, we are now so so reliant on him not picking up an injury. If Diarra gets injured we will be in some serious trouble! I think it's pretty clear we can all see this and I'm sure Jol can as well so he surely must be looking at the youth guys to see if any of them can make the step up or he is going to be forced to bring in an out of contract player perhaps not to go straight into our starting 11 but so we have that cover there should we pick up an injury or 2.

I will be very interested to see what new "system" is used against WBA but lets face it the performance can't be any worse than the first half at the weekend. Still every team has a bad half or game during the season lets just hope that was one of our only ones!

[Zu-Meister]

im just glad he realises he needs to change things round with our best players gone.

[White Noise]

And that is 'players' plural coming back - not just Ruiz. Frei, Senderos, Davies & Grygera may all be part of Jol's preferred line-up.

[ffcbulgaria]

And that is 'players' plural coming back - not just Ruiz. Frei, Senderos, Davies & Grygera may all be part of Jol's preferred line-up.

yep... add Dejagah and we have a whole new bench for next game

[Andy_M]

And that is 'players' plural coming back - not just Ruiz. Frei, Senderos, Davies & Grygera may all be part of Jol's preferred line-up.

Exactly White Noise! As I said in my last sentence every team in the season will have a bad half or bad game!

[PokerMatt]

And that is 'players' plural coming back - not just Ruiz. Frei, Senderos, Davies & Grygera may all be part of Jol's preferred line-up.

Exactly White Noise! As I said in my last sentence every team in the season will have a bad half or bad game!

We lost 0-5 to United at home last year, 3-1 at home to Everton. Hell, we had four points out of the first 18!

It was poor against West Ham but second half was an improvement and besides I have faith in Jol that he has a plan after Dembele.

[General]

And that is 'players' plural coming back - not just Ruiz. Frei, Senderos, Davies & Grygera may all be part of Jol's preferred line-up.

White Noise - you wouldn't happen to have any info on the whereabouts of Senderos, Frei, Davies and whether Grygera has signed a new contract...?

[fulhamben]

frei tweeted the other day he had been traing hard.. so

And that is 'players' plural coming back - not just Ruiz. Frei, Senderos, Davies & Grygera may all be part of Jol's preferred line-up.

White Noise - you wouldn't happen to have any info on the whereabouts of Senderos, Frei, Davies and whether Grygera has signed a new contract...?

from that i assume he must be close to coming back

[elgreenio]

Frei won't be back for WBA, but may make the Wigan game

[ALFI]

My first post :)

I am looking forward seeing Berba and Ruiz get on the same wavelength.
But I have a strange feeling that Berbatov will not play as main striker (as most of you probably expect). There is no doubt that he could lead the line, but with our lack of good CMs/AMs this is probably not gonna happen. Berbatov likes going deep, taking the ball and creating chances for his teammates. This is exactly what I expect him to do here.

There was a press conference in Bulgaria today and he was asked about the lack of CMs. Btw he had exactly the same issue at United (one of the main reasons for not showing his best there). His answer was quick and he said exactly what I was expecting (something like: "I have evolved as a player and now I like going deep and creating chances for my teammates. I am going to help them with that." ).

So my guess is that he will play behind the main striker and will be involved in almost every move forward (we saw signs of this last game). He could always be a main striker should we manage to sign some creative CMs/AMs.

[bulgariawhite]

I now live in Bulgaria and I can assure you the interviews here are very positive from Berbatov. There were some negative rumblings on the site this morning, but I assure you he has come over as being excited. Shame we have no marketing products out here at all. Would have started getting some money back. The press are full of it as well.

[AlFayedsChequebook]

I now live in Bulgaria and I can assure you the interviews here are very positive from Berbatov. There were some negative rumblings on the site this morning, but I assure you he has come over as being excited. Shame we have no marketing products out here at all. Would have started getting some money back. The press are full of it as well.

He seems like a top bloke to be honest.

Are there any transcripts of his comments that you could link to?

[bulgariawhite]

Sorry but only in Bulgarian, which must be the hardest language in the world to learn. I must admit my own is limited, but have some workers here who translate the news for me during the day. I think we could get some new fans out here, because TV coverage will cover all Fulham games. He advertises products on TV and is very high profile. Can only be good for me with the locals, and offer the opportunity for Fulham FC to be recognised at long last. Depends on what marketing rights were written into his contract, but wearing a Fulham shirt would be great in some of the commercials

[kewbridgeffc]

5 (!) articles (in English) from his recent press conference on this Bulgarian news site:

http://www.novinite.com/category.php?category_id=4


Doesn't want to play for national team
Lost respect for ferguson
Spurs did come in for him at last minute

[ALFI]

Sorry but only in Bulgarian, which must be the hardest language in the world to learn. I must admit my own is limited, but have some workers here who translate the news for me during the day. I think we could get some new fans out here, because TV coverage will cover all Fulham games. He advertises products on TV and is very high profile. Can only be good for me with the locals, and offer the opportunity for Fulham FC to be recognised at long last. Depends on what marketing rights were written into his contract, but wearing a Fulham shirt would be great in some of the commercials

It's really one of the hardest. I am Bulgarian and know that all foreigners find our grammar very difficult to cope with.

TBH, don't expect any shirt sales in Bulgaria but FFC will definitely become very popular club there.  Half of the people (CSKA Sofia fans) will support FFC and the other half (Levski Sofia fans) will support any other club against us ;)

[ALFI]

One of the most interesting answers was:

The other day I played for Fulham and we were losing 3-0,but I felt like we are leading 6-0,I'm playing for a coach,for which I'll die

Lol....